Monday, 31 August 2009

The Glendale trust have today written to Highland Council requesting continued access to the Borrodale School buildings for a permanent heritage exhibition

The Glendale Trust have written the following letter to the Highland Council:

"I write with reference to your kind permission to allow “The Glendale Trust” to have been given access to the portacabin at Borrodale School from the 17-29th August 2009 to host a heritage exhibition and to seek permission that we can continue to use this resource to benefit the community from an education perspective.

The exhibition has been an unqualified success that has had an extremely positive impact on the community of Glendale.

We have been able to cover a wide range of subjects for example the issue of land reform and the relevance of Glendale to the struggle for crofters rights through the land league, the activities of the Glendale martyrs and the evidence given to the Napier Commission here in Glendale.

We have also been able to showcase important crofting records that we have obtained that go back to the beginning of the 19th Century. There is a significant display on the war dead of Glendale from both world wars as well as artefacts from that time.

I am also pleased to say we have a significant display on Borrodale School itself as well as covering the people of Glendale.

The exhibition has proved popular with locals and visitors alike, with a steady stream of people visiting the school over the two week period.

We were particularly delighted to welcome a group of pupils who came to visit from Dunvegan primary school to look over the exhibits, to watch some film archive we have from the 1920s and 1930s as well as to hear the tales of our older generations who were able to inform them of times gone by in Glendale.

As well as the main exhibition we have also put on special events such as a talk by local historian George Macpherson and a film night which was attended by more than sixty people.

I am sure you will agree that what we have put together is a very important historical record, albeit one we can build on, of life in Glendale and of course a resource that has much educational merit.

What has also particularly pleased us has been the response from the local community, with many individuals spending a considerable amount of time at the exhibition, many of whom have made multiple visits.

Having established the heritage exhibition over a two week period and having had such an overwhelming positive response from the community it is our intention to build on this initiative.

The Glendale Trust will be developing a business plan with a view of obtaining funding that would allow us to mount an exhibition on a permanent basis and to build on the knowledge and appreciation of our local history including a resource that would allow locals and visitors to study the genealogical links to the people of Glendale.

In this regard I write to formally request if it would be possible for The Glendale Trust to be granted access to the school buildings in order that we can continue to showcase this material for the benefit of the community of Glendale?

The trust would suggest that this would be good use of this facility that would result in the premises continuing to serve a broad based educational purpose and of course creating good use of what is currently an empty building.

Granting of such access would allow us to continue our work to build up the exhibition.

Ian Blackford,ChairmanThe Glendale Trust.

*S3M-4720 Rob Gibson: Glendale Life—That the Parliament congratulates the Glendale Trust for mounting a heritage exhibition, displayed in Borrodale school, on the life of Glendale people in the last 200 years; commends the content of the show donated by many whose families and work have enhanced the life of this corner of the Isle of Skye; recalls the important part played by Glendale folk in the crofters’ struggles of the 1880s and its unique place in the establishment of the people’s right to live on their own land, and welcomes the growing support to retain Borrodale school as a heritage centre for the area.

Friday, 28 August 2009

THE political reaction from unionist politicians in Scotland has been all too predictable. They play partisan politics with the decision of the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill to send the Lockerbie bomber home to Libya as an act of mercy for a dying man.

They ignore a wide range of support from enlightened opinion across the parties and from many UK relatives of the Lockerbie victims. Had Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi died a martyr in prison in Scotland, no doubt they would have condemned that decision too. That is unless they had been in power.

The moral outrage of unionists here is as illogical as the hysterical reaction of many US citizens quoted on Fox TV and the country's FBI chief, Robert Mueller.

Yet look at US blogs and there is considerable support for Scotland's justice secretary and his compassionate decision.

I have had a couple of dozen e-mails and messages. Overwhelmingly, they echo the words of one constituent last Monday. Writing to me before the recall of parliament for Mr MacAskill's statement and questions, he said: "Could I say that I think a brave decision was taken last week, with which I fully agree.

"The events in Tripoli were unfortunate but the fact that the justice minister could act in an individual way unfettered by outside pressure is admirable."

Several round-robin e-mails expressing the opposite view have appeared. Only two or three from the Highlands and Islands.

The silence from London during the crucial decision time needs to be explained. I noted from The Guardian last Saturday that the foreign secretary David Miliband was keener to reject any hint of UK complicity in Megrahi's release than on explaining the UK's position.

He was cross questioned on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme and insisted that the UK Government would not interfere with the Scottish decision.

He explained: "It would upturn the devolution settlement, which says very clearly that the justice secretary in Scotland should make this decision."

Who can disagree with Julian Borger in The Guardian that "the British Government had just secured the unexpected bonus of being able to please its new Libyan partners while ducking responsibility for the release of a convicted mass murderer"?

While Blair and Brown were seeking oil and gas contracts for Shell, BP and BS, a cross-party delegation of US senators led by John McCain, the defeated Republican presidential candidate, met with Libya's leader on Friday, August 14, in Tripoli to discuss the possible delivery of non-lethal defence equipment. Associated Press reported that visit and Washington's offer of military equipment was another sign of the improving ties between the former long-time adversaries.

Mr McCain said: "The status of human rights and political reform in Libya will remain a chief element of concern. However, ties between the United States and Libya have taken a remarkable and positive turn in recent years."

*

LAST weekend, I attended the unveiling of a monument at Lyness to the Arctic convoys during the Second World War.

In contrast to the criticism of Scotland by the US Government over the Lockerbie issue, high-ranking dignitaries from Russia stood shoulder to shoulder with Scottish, Belgian and other allied citizens at the new memorial.

In wartime the naval escorts sailed from Scapa Flow to protect merchant ships assembled at Loch Ewe. Three thousand seamen and a 100 out of 800 allied ships were lost supplying the Soviet Union with the materials that underpinned the country's victory against the Nazis. The hazards of the convoys to Murmansk were appalling. We rightly remembered the sacrifice made in the cause of freedom.

The Russian consul general for Scotland, Sergey Krutikov, presented medals on behalf of his government to two surviving Orkney veterans of the convoys.

These were given to applause from the 300 people present. Among them was a convoy veteran Sandy Manson, from John O'Groats, another comrade who sailed to Russia on HMS Matchless.

I have made many friends from Russia and, in particular, from the oil province in Siberia in recent years. The chairman of the local parliament, or duma, shared the task of unveiling the monument that forms two great standing stones shaped like the prow of a ship.

We plough safer waters today and share economic aims with our northern neighbours. That future was assured by our kin who fought for that freedom. It's up to us to build sustainable links that rule out conflicts in Europe in future and include our Russian friends in the recovery of our economies in today's world.

*

IN a week of political discord several MSPs will be hoping to strike a note of harmony at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe tomorrow.

Myself, Thurso-born Green MSP Robin Harper, Labour's Pauline McNeil as well as Jamie McGrigor, of the Tories, will be taking to the stage at theatre workshop to perform a concert in aid of ChildLine.

It is a fantastic opportunity to perform at the world's biggest and (probably) best arts festival, and it is a great charity to raise money for.

So if you are around Edinburgh tomorrow, or know of anyone down there, then the theatre workshop at Stockbridge would be worth a visit. I can't guarantee that you won't be disappointed but it should be good fun!

THE political reaction from unionist politicians in Scotland has been all too predictable. They play partisan politics with the decision of the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to send the Lockerbie bomber home to Libya as an act of mercy for a dying man.

They ignore a wide range of support from enlightened opinion across the parties and from many UK relatives of the Lockerbie victims. Had Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi died a martyr in prison in Scotland, no doubt they would have condemned that decision too. That is unless they had been in power.

The moral outrage of unionists here is as illogical as the hysterical reaction of many US citizens quoted on Fox TV and the country's FBI chief, Robert Mueller.

Yet look at US blogs and there is considerable support for Scotland's Justice Secretary and his compassionate decision.

I have had a couple of dozen e-mails and messages. Overwhelmingly, they echo the words of one constituent last Monday. Writing to me before the recall of Parliament for Mr MacAskill's statement and questions, he said: "Could I say that I think a brave decision was taken last week, with which I fully agree.

"The events in Tripoli were unfortunate but the fact that the Justice Minister could act in an individual way unfettered by outside pressure is admirable."

Several round-robin e-mails expressing the opposite view have appeared. Only two or three from the Highlands and Islands.

The silence from London during the crucial decision time needs to be explained. I noted from The Guardian last Saturday that the Foreign Secretary David Miliband was keener to reject any hint of UK complicity in Megrahi's release than on explaining the UK's position.

He was cross questioned on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme and insisted that the UK Government would not interfere with the Scottish decision.

He explained: "It would upturn the devolution settlement, which says very clearly that the Justice Secretary in Scotland should make this decision."

Who can disagree with Julian Borger in The Guardian that "the British Government had just secured the unexpected bonus of being able to please its new Libyan partners while ducking responsibility for the release of a convicted mass murderer"?

While Blair and Brown were seeking oil and gas contracts for Shell, BP and BS, a cross-party delegation of US senators led by John McCain, the defeated Republican presidential candidate, met with Libya's leader on Friday, August 14, in Tripoli to discuss the possible delivery of non-lethal defence equipment. Associated Press reported that visit and Washington's offer of military equipment was another sign of the improving ties between the former long-time adversaries.

Mr McCain said: "The status of human rights and political reform in Libya will remain a chief element of concern. However, ties between the United States and Libya have taken a remarkable and positive turn in recent years."

*

LAST weekend, I attended the unveiling of a monument at Lyness to the Arctic convoys during the Second World War.

In contrast to the criticism of Scotland by the US Government over the Lockerbie issue, high-ranking dignitaries from Russia stood shoulder to shoulder with Scottish, Belgian and other allied citizens at the new memorial.

In wartime the naval escorts sailed from Scapa Flow to protect merchant ships assembled at Loch Ewe. Three thousand seamen and 100 out of 800 allied ships were lost supplying the Soviet Union with the materials that underpinned the country's victory against the Nazis. The hazards of the convoys to Murmansk were appalling. We rightly remembered the sacrifice made in the cause of freedom.

The Russian consul general for Scotland, Sergey Krutikov, presented medals on behalf of his government to two surviving Orkney veterans of the convoys.

These were given to applause from the 300 people present. Among them was a convoy veteran Sandy Manson, from John O'Groats, another comrade who sailed to Russia on HMS Matchless.

I have made many friends from Russia and, in particular, from the oil province in Siberia in recent years. The chairman of the local parliament, or duma, shared the task of unveiling the monument that forms two great standing stones shaped like the prow of a ship.

We plough safer waters today and share economic aims with our northern neighbours. That future was assured by our kin who fought for that freedom. It's up to us to build sustainable links that rule out conflicts in Europe in future and include our Russian friends in the recovery of our economies in today's world.

*

IN a week of political discord several MSPs will be hoping to strike a note of harmony at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe tomorrow.

Myself, Thurso-born Green MSP Robin Harper, Labour's Pauline McNeil as well as Jamie McGrigor, of the Tories, will be taking to the stage at theatre workshop to perform a concert in aid of ChildLine.

It is a fantastic opportunity to perform at the world's biggest and (probably) best arts festival, and it is a great charity to raise money for.

So if you are around Edinburgh tomorrow, or know of anyone down there, then the theatre workshop at Stockbridge would be worth a visit. I can't guarantee that you won't be disappointed but it should be good fun!

Thursday, 27 August 2009

Above: Here I am on barge on the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change committee away day, Edinburgh Quay to Ratho and back. 25.8.9

Above: Me on the PS Waverley on final cruise off isle of Arran 27.8.9 The world's oldest seaghoing pasddle steamer deserves full support that museums and archeology get. If summers don't improve the Scottish leg of its duties will reduce; that's because passengers are more numerous on the English south coast and in the Thames. I discussed the prospects with Capt Clark and other directors of the company on board off the east side of Arran.

Travelling on Waverley is an experience to be recommended and unlikely to be forgotten.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

I visited the Alness allotments at Milnafua on their open day in mid-August. The success in the past year attracted a visit from rural Minister Richard Lochhead in June as well. the fruits of their labour are a most attractive advert for the town and its enthusiasts. Would that each community had the same opportunity to grow their own.

*

I also travelled to Orkney on 20th August for a visit to the new offices of the Centre for Nordic Studies in Kirkwall. There I conducted a surgery and attended a joint meeting between Russian business people and Orkney Islands council.

S3M-4721 Rob Gibson: Nordic Studies Centre Expands—That the Parliament commends the UHI Millennium Institute’s Centre for Nordic Studies in Kirkwall for its expansion to new premises on Kiln Corner and in Scalloway in the North Atlantic Fisheries College; notes its vital role in promoting and preserving all the indigenous cultures of the Highlands and Islands by including Norse, Scots and Gaelic elements in its courses which include the literature of Orkney and more widely the literature of the Highlands and Islands, and welcomes the distance learning ethos of the UHI Millennium Institute that contributes to the international reach of this dynamic centre of learning

*

On Saturday 22nd I attended as a representative of the SNP Government the unveiling of the memorial to the Russian Arctic convoys of WW2 on Hoy at the old naval base of Lyness. The friendships struck by representatives from Ugra, the Russian Consul to Scotland and representatives of VTB investment bank as sponsors of Russian Hour TV will be the basis of economic partnerships between Scotland and Russia to come.

It was a great dsiplay of remembrance for the most hazardous convoys in WW2. And reaffirmed the friendship and possible trade between Russia and Orkney.

Photo: At the point of unveiling - shows Vasily Sondykov, Chairman of the Duma in Ugra Province unveiling Russian side of the 'ship's prow'. Cll James Stockan, Vice Convener of Orkney Islands Council on right unveiling UK side. Rob wearing green bonnet and kilt with the other Russian and Belgian dignitories behind.

Here I am on barge on the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change away day, Edinburgh Quay to Ratho and back. 25.8.9

Me on the PS Waverley on final cruise off isle of Arran 27.8.9 The world's oldest seaghoing pasddle steamer deserves full support that museums and archeology get. If summers don't improve the Scottish leg of its duties will reduce; that's because passengers are more numerous on the English south coast and in the Thames. I discussed the prospects with Capt Clark and other directors of the company on board off the east side of Arran.

Travelling on Waverley is an experience to be recommended and unlikely to be forgotten.

Friday, 14 August 2009

AT motorway services en route to Scotland you can find postcards. Not just of the stunning scenery that awaits the intrepid travellers north of Gretna, Carter Bar and Berwick, but ones that show a great cloud bank into which disappears a car and caravan.

Welcome to Scotland is the motto.

But often the weather pattern is the opposite. We drove through torrential rain from Bristol to Preston on the way home from Brittany. Yet news pictures of Highland Games and agriculture shows, gala weeks and pop festivals like Belladrum in the past month show lucky breaks in the gloom. Meanwhile, friends tell me that on breakfast time TV there was a deafening chorus from people saying they will never spend another holiday in the UK. Did they ever consider coming to the Far North and west of Scotland?

Patterns are changing; coastal Brittany experiences much less reliable sun than I remember in the 1980s and '90s. Meanwhile typhoons wreak havoc in the Pacific Ocean, and Saharan Africa and Australia are in desperate drought. Climate is perceptibly altering and for the worst in many parts.

James Lovelock was interviewed in the Observer last Sunday. The 90-year-old scientist invented the Gaia theory that was ridiculed 30 years ago. Today it is close to scientific orthodoxy, i.e. the Earth is a self-regulating entity. Saving the ecosystem and the planet is mainstream and not now seen as immune to infinite amounts of human abuse. It can rebalance its atmosphere, etc, and humans had better watch out.

Lovelock controversially thinks nuclear power is safe and the infrastructure quick to build, and points to the CO2 impact of building windmills. But he does see tidal energy as a good thing that will take time. He considers flying far less of a problem than the CO2 given out all the time by us and our pets.

That's where government decisions and choices kick in. The Scottish Climate Change Bill, soon to become the most important act passed by the Scottish Parliament, will guide us in this country. Make no mistake... what we choose must set a good example or else our grandchildren will rue this day.

*

GREAT ideas for practical means to tackle greenhouse gases (GHG) come from many quarters.

At the Black Isle Show last week, the NFUS president Jim McLaren was waxing lyrical about the potential of hydrogen power. Every farm should install wind or solar power and by electrolysis make hydrogen to run all the farm equipment. Most can be self-sufficient and pay back investment in a very few years.

We need to decarbonise our transport by 2025 to meet GHG reduction targets. So lots more diverse ideas will need investment very soon. Incidentally, it is very heartening that the Scottish Government invested 73 per cent of its spend on renewable energy projects in the Highlands and Islands. We can maintain a high percentage spent here as the Scottish Government Renewables Plan develops in the next two years.

But there is no need to wait till others catch up. The Innes family wind farm at Stirkoke offers one family benefit; local charities too will win while control lies with the residents themselves. That means more local income from power sold to the grid. The jobs which can emerge from this green revolution were discussed in detail when I introduced my colleague Keith Brown MSP, the Minister for schools and skills, to the North Highland College in Thurso this week. Communities and community benefit are just beginning to get discussed seriously. Careers in environmental and energy jobs are key to our prospects hereabouts.

Photo: Schools and skills minister Keith Brown (centre) at the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso with some of the team members and MSP Rob Gibson (second from right).*

Schools and skills minister Keith Brown (centre) at the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso with some of the team members and MSP Rob Gibson (second from right).

BETWEEN April and June next year the TV transmitters at Rumster Forest and Thrumster will switch off analogue signals and go completely digital. By December 2010 the Rosemarkie mast, which serves Inverness and the Great Glen, will be the last part of the North to go fully digital.

I am impressed with the pace of this huge engineering project which has not left us in the Far North last in the queue. Indeed London will be last of all.

Even a 1938 TV owned by the grandson of John Logie Baird worked with a Freeview digibox to pick up the new format. So few new TV sets are needed. I was briefed by Alan Cowie, erstwhile Grampian TV programme producer from Aberdeen. He is keen to give clear answers to all who are concerned. A postcode checker is found at digitaluk.co.uk or telephone at local rates to 08456 50 50 50 with your queries.

The switchover is free for those over 75, the disabled and blind or partially sighted. I want to help everyone get access to as full a range of TV as possible at the least cost. A far more powerful signal awaits and we deserve the best.

Since a Scot invented the medium, let's make good use of its digital future. Local digital TV services from Caithness could be produced and broadcast.

*

ALL the talk at UK level this week is of food security. Hilary Benn wants us to help the world by becoming less reliant on imports. More concerning is his call to use GM seeds to improve yields.

In contrast, the Scottish National Food and Drinks Policy views natural agricultural methods as the most sustainable and sees no evidence that GM crops for animal feed or cotton show any consistent increase in yields.

Perversely, the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which is supposed to be at arm's length from government, undermines confidence in organic foods as against industrial crops. Also the FSA is set to soften up opinion in favour of GM foods in a year-long public engagement exercise.

This stems from London Labour ministers from whom the FSA is another arm of the discredited Westminster regime. With FSA Scotland singled out to return powers to Westminster in the Calman proposals, it is time all our MPs and MSPs were asked which side they are on.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

The last thing crofting needs in 2009 is another LibDem peddling Victorian platitudes. 129 years after the 1886 Crofting Act its strengths and weaknesses are all too apparent in today's conditions.

Those of us long involved in ways to make crofts viable and improve Highland land use don't need insults about lack of understanding of Highland issues. [letters 31 July] . Seeing the neglect, absenteeism and misuse of our most basic resource which the Highland Land League strove to save for the people 100 years ago, we need no potted history from Alan MacRae that ignores forces such as the wider economy, planning and food prices that affect crofting beyond Crofting law.

Let him remember that his LibDem minister Ross Finnie and four successive Labour deputies totally delayed and finally botched croft reform from 1999 to 2006. They were forced to set up the Shucksmith Enquiry which the SNP inherited. Awkward truths on the state of crofting and croft regulation were revealed.

The SNP seeks long-lasting solutions and is working with crofters and the Scottish Crofting Foundation to find the best way forward. During the passage of the 2006 Act the SNP voted with JF Munro to get a partly elected Crofters Commission. This was vetoed by the majority of Labour and LibDem MSPs.

Today we have the opportunity to make good the time lost to crofting by LibDem and Labour blunders. Insults are petty. It's time to make clear what active crofting needs in the way of transparent regulation without added burdens. Petitions are all very well, positive ideas to sustain crofting in the 21st century are much more constructive.

Definitive endorsement from the crofting authority of the plans and efforts being made by this Scottish Government.

The historian who charted the origins and development of crofting is questioning whether the unique system of land tenure he has spent most of his adult life championing will survive much longer.

Professor Jim Hunter has become increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for crofting in the face of the bitter dispute that has erupted over successive governments' proposals for reform.

Mr Hunter, who has served as the founding director of the Scottish Crofters Union, is a staunch advocate of the relevance of crofting.

A debate has been raging since the previous Labour and LibDem Scottish Executive launched a crofting reform bill. The government was forced to abandon large sections of the bill in September 2006 and a committee of inquiry was launched into crofting under Professor Mark Shucksmith.

His report formed the basis of the current draft bill. Public consultation ends on Wednesday. Among the bill's provisions is the requirement that any house built on land taken out of crofting will have to be occupied as a principal residence for more than six months a year, an attempt to stem the demand for holiday homes that has long distorted the housing market in the Highlands and Islands.

However, the Scottish Crofting Foundation has attacked the bill as "oppressive" and the Crofting Rights Emergency Action Group, which was set up last year in north-west Sutherland, is campaigning against it.

Mr Hunter said: "More than 120 years ago, a British prime minister, William Gladstone, did something that none of his modern successors, whether in London or Edinburgh, would contemplate for a moment.

"He excluded the free market from large parts of the Highlands and Islands by taking away just about all the powers that landlords had previously exercised over crofts and crofters.

"Families who could previously be evicted by landlords with no more than a few weeks' notice were given perpetual security of tenure and their rents, formerly set at high levels by their landlords, were henceforth - and are still - fixed by a state-appointed tribunal."

However, Mr Hunter said the market had reasserted itself, with more people wanting to have homes in crofting localities.

"Understandably, many crofters are taking advantage of this, by selling their land as house sites or, sometimes, by selling, in effect, their crofts. Of course, the controls imposed on crofting in Gladstone's time are supposed to make this type of market in croft land impossible."

Mr Hunter continued: "When the Shucksmith inquiry team undertook one of the most exhaustive inquiries ever mounted into crofting, they were told over and over again by crofters that, unless this market in croft land was brought under the same sort of stringent controls that were long ago imposed on crofting landlords, crofting as we've known it for generations will soon cease to exist. I'm convinced that, without the sort of actions Shucksmith recommended and which the Scottish Government is trying to introduce, crofting of the traditional sort will soon be no more.

"It's virtually impossible for young people, often for local people of any age, to get into crofting. They're simply being outbid at every turn. So the question, at its most basic, is this: Do crofters wish to secure the future of crofting by subjecting it to renewed controls of the kind that have kept crofting in being for so long? Or do they want, as individuals, to have the right to profit from a less and less controlled market in croft land? Judging by what's being said by many crofters, there certainly isn't a consensus in favour of more, and much tougher, controls.

"If I had a croft and if I had the chance of selling chunks of it for large sums, I'm by no means certain that I'd prefer to keep that croft in existence for a future generation.

"If what's happening now continues, crofting has had it. That doesn't mean there won't be flourishing communities in the Highlands and Islands 50 or 100 years from now. But they won't be crofting communities, and crofting, by then, will be just as much a part of history as the days of clans and clanship."

Friday, 7 August 2009

Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross delegates discussed the crofting consultation at the SNP Constituency meeting last Friday. The delegates from Invergordon, Tain, Rosehall, Helmsdale and Thurso welcomed the discussions previously held by members of the Sutherland branch which were led by Westminster PPC Cllr Jean Urquhart and Cllr George Farlow.

Crofting members of the SNP in each part of the constituency want to see reasoned changes to the draft bill. They felt that incoherent rejection of the serious points raised would not sustain crofting communities. The assurances from the crofting Minister Roseanna Cunningham that this was merely a consultation shows that SNP in Government listens to crofters.

Rob Gibson MSP told the meeting that the sensible suggestions coming from grazings committees which he has already seen confirm that thoughtful analysis rather than shoot from the hip language is needed. Members noted the appalling behaviour of attendees at several crofting consultative meetings were unrepresentative of the wider crofting community.

He said, "I am glad that the SNP government is committed to seek ways to end absenteeism, to maintain the crofting culture which underpin local grazing committees and aims to democratise the Crofters Commission."

Members also noted with satisfaction that other wider land reform issues may be debated at the SNP's Annual Conference to be held in Eden Court Inverness this October. Submissions from local branches contribute fully to the national debate.

The FSA needs to explain pesticide effects to public and a co-convener of Holyrood's Cross Party Group on Food I would urge consumers attending agricultural shows [such as the Black Isle Show at Muir of Ord this week] to tackle the Food Standards Agency which takes a stall there. They should be asked why pesticide residues were excluded from the FSA's recent nutritional study on organic and conventional food when the main reason families buy organic is to protect the environment.

Clearly the Food Standards Agency needs to come clean about the real differences between organic and conventional food production. Their report last week showed no nutritional differences between the two but excluded contaminant content such as herbicide, pesticide and fungicide residues from the desktop review.

Yet new figures revealed in The Herald [3.8.9] show nearly half of conventional food bought by consumers contains significant traces of pesticides. The SNP Government has won wide support for a national food policy based on the natural methods widely practiced in this country. We need no muddying of the waters by the FSA which has given the nod to GM animal feed while undermining confidence in natural food.

Surely the body charged with food safety, the FSA, has to explain how its muddled behaviour affects the aims of Scotland's National Food and Drinks Policy .

The SNP has long fought for modern methods that avoid GM. We also question what effects pesticides have on bees and we find the gloating of commentators over the FSA report a last week a sign that farming methods fit for 21st century consumer knowledge will have to be far more inclusive and environmentally conscious. The NFUS should also address these same issues and accept that consumers are not fooled by the biotech agenda.

I was elected Highlands & Islands MSP in 2003. I am a member of the Parliament's Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as well as the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. I am also a historian, musician, author and traditional music festival organiser.
Scots, Gaelic and the Traditional Arts are core interests as are nuclear disarmament, affordable housing and saving consultant led services in the NHS.
I was born and educated in Glasgow, and attended Dundee University and Education College. As a former Modern Studies teacher much of my professional life was spent teaching at the Invergordon and Alness Academies as the Principal Teacher of Guidance. Since early retirement, or early ‘relifement’ as I like to call it, I have developed my historical training and skills by writing the book Plaids and Bandanas.
I have been a long time SNP activist and was a former District Councillor in Ross and Cromarty. I joined the SNP in 1966, was FSN President from 1970-1973 and have been a member of the SNP's National Council, Executive, and Cabinet.